That Jessie Sponberg guy never quits. NEVER.

As if endlessly organizing masses to march, rally and shut down bridges wasn’t enough, Sponberg still managed to put together his 5th annual Efryting Drivean annual event he uses to attain an insane amount of items – primarily warm clothes and blankets – for the city’s large and highly vulnerable homeless population.

Last year, the City threatened to fine Sponberg when they learned of his plan to drop a dump truck sized load of resources on a downtown street. We Out Here Magazine offered to pay the fines, but the City backed down. The Oregonian captured the dump on video. (See cover photo.) With the police once again out to snatch belongings from the homeless, no time like the present to donate some stuff you don’t need to someone who really does. As Sponberg put it, “It is literally a race against the police to keep people from dying.”

But why not have some fun in the process?

The Efryting Drive is always a lively event. Held at Cadigan’s Bar in SE (The home of Fight Church), The Efryting Drive is a 12 hour “multi-thon”, benefiting the Downtown Chapel and the grassroots FREE HOT SOUP campaign. Entrance requires donations of cold weather gear, especially blankets, tarps, socks, gloves etc. As an FYI, they are not accepting VHS tapes or electric typewriters. (I’m not sure who would think to donate these to a homeless person but this IS Portland so…)

The event will be headlined by musical guest The Chicharones and augmented by local comedians Kristine Levine and Adam Pasi. The line-up boasts a total of 5 outstanding bands and ten fantastic local comics, gathered together with the most active and engaged members of the Portland community.

Sole Pro takes out Al-One in the semi’s at the Friendly Fire Battle (Photo by Jessica Allen)

The highlight of the evening will be the “Friendly Fire” rap compliment battle, where the best talent in the Portland hip-hop compete – nicely – for the title of Mr Nice Guy 2014. Last year’s battle was one of my favorite shows of 2013 and was narrowly won by Vancouver rap vet Sole Provider, who managed to emerge victorious over Epp. 2012 had an equally fun ending, and Sponberg plans to keep up the momentum. There are no losers in a rap compliment battle, but no one wins bigger than the fans.

Check it out. Have fun. Make a difference. #OutHere